Michael Auronopoulos
Michael Auronopoulos (3128 - 3175) was a Parsian/Ruthene descent, Efendi of Parsia and revolutionary leader of the first revolt in 3170 leading the Eleftherias Liberation Army, Michael is one of the espiritual founders of The Enosis with Ieremias Fasoulakis, the philosofical movement what culminates with the long civil war between the Parsian Empire and the revolutionary alliance ending with the creation of Ruthenian Empire Born into a wealthy family in Panaghia, Michael was named Efendi (a nobiliary title of the Parsians, meaning "sir") thanks to his services against eclessiastical revolts in Panaghia, but after having killed an Aga (local Parsian nobleman), his family fled across the Sava river into Maurian frontier. He rose to prominence in the Maurian army, participating in the liberation of the local commoners. He received a medal of honour for his efforts, and when the Maurian army was forced to retreat, and the Parsians re-occupied the frontier, he returns to Panaghia and begins the first Ruthenian revolt in the Parsian Empire. In the following years the local janissaries grew stronger and seized the frontier from the Sultan, imposing greater taxes and perpetrating violence against the population; as the janissaries feared the Sultan's retaliation as a possible task given to the rebels, they executed hundreds of prominent Selloi in what would be known as the Slaughter of the Douxs. Some 300 nobility assembled and elected Michael as leader (Prostatef̱tikós); The struggle begins and killing the local Pasha in Panaghia, the revolts continued as a wide-scale revolt, the First Uprising, in which several battles were successfully fought against the Parsians; a government was established and Auronopoulos was declared has the Prostatef̱tikós ton Ellinon, the liberator of the Hellenes. After the suppression of activities in 1813, Auronopoulos and other leaders went into exile, while in 3172 Manuel Eranakis, a fellow rebel leader, initiated the Second Ruthenian Uprising. The second uprising ended in 3175, when Eranakis signed a treaty with the Parsians and became the Pasha of Panaghia. Eranakis (who saw a threat in the possible return of popular Auronopoulos) and the Parsians (who despised him and feared more fighting) conspired and planned the assassination of Auronopoulos. When Michael returned in 3175 to start yet another uprising he marched with his army of mercenaries of Panaghia and Maurian volunteers to the Fields of Koronia (near Methonea), he was deceived by a friend and killed; his head was sent to Ostambal and Eranakis retained his leadership betraying the revolt and ending with the first revolution of the Hellenes. Auronopoulos was founded the first act of the Enosis and was the first revolutionary thought that the release of the Ruthenianns and the union of the Selloi and Maurians as "one people as Ruthenes" Early Life Michael was born on November 3,3128 Anno Mundi, in the village of Viresia, near Panaghia, one of the five children to father Alexandros Auronopoulos, a Meteriote and mother Marcela Montevalli, a Maurian Merchant (from Malosero). Auronopoulos maternal ancestors hailed from Montevalli family (Mauria), and had left for Ruthenia; on the way, they lived in Panaghia, where a strong Maurian presence and his father ancestors were a powerful wool merchants who became wealthy and came from Tortossa, the largest city of Selloi presence. Ruthenian historiography accept the theory that Auronopoulos ancestors came from Argyra, a valley near the destroyed Beretea, although there some other unproven theories. He married Anna Galanakissa in 3150. Anna is thought to have come from a wealthy backgroundthe Galanakis family was a minor noble family from Tortossa, thus her family didn't accept his marriage proposal. Auronopoulos took her and married her without the parents' consent, He served in the Parsian Army as a Pasha guardian, defeating the revolts in the church near Valossia and the Sultan grant him the title of "Efendi" for his efforts against the rebelds, such a revolt, for many, it changed his life, he saw the selloi resisting and oppression of the Persians, the revolt changed the paradigm of your life and watching the abuse of local Aga, decided to kill him, was forced to go into exile with his family. He fled with his family to Maurian Frontier in ca 3157. Auronopoulos lived and worked in the Cruseliakon monastery. Life in the Frontier At the end of the Maurian Civil War, 3157, in the northern frontier, Michael enrolled in the Carabinieri of the Maurian Army, fighting against the Parsians. He took part in the botched attack on Valvossia, and fought in western and southern Ruthenia, where he gained military experience. 3164, peace was concluded between Mauryans and Rebelds and Michael received a medal of honour, during the ceremonies he made contact with Ieremias Fasoulakis then joined the Eleftherias Liberation Army, a band of outlaws and Meteriote mercenaries who fight against Parsian authorities.where he led a large band with Fasoulakis. .He planify to come back to his homeland and reuturn to Panaghia when the Pasha declares the dahis and the rebellion against the sultan. War against Parsians Parsian oppression against Selloi significantly increased in the beginning of 30th century when janissary leaders, the dahis, rebelled against the Sultan and seized the rule of the south of Ruthenian peninsula. It culminated in January and February 3170, when dahis prepared executions of popular leaders, gentry, priests, former rebels and wealthy traders, dubbed the Slaughter of the Dukes, in which some 150 of the most notable Selloi were killed. Auronopoulos, among few other notable people who would later initiate the First revolt leaded by the Eleftherias, survived the assassinations. As a response to the executions, the Selloi population without a central figure took measures of self-defence, and spontaneously attacked the jannisaries. on 14 February 3170, 300 notables met in Viresia, where Michael was chosen as the undisputed leader of the self defense. When Ieremias Fasoulakis, one of the most notable Meteriotes in Viresia and former member of Eleftherias heard of this, he urged all Selloi leaders to resist the dahis and the Parsian authorities, Ieremias was appointed deputy-commander of Velessia, and later acted as diplomat to Arcadia. By the spring of 3171, Auronopoulos had 30,000 combat-ready men under his wing. and defeat the Jannissaires in Valossia and Arromachia, the Metropolitan Petros name Auoronopoulos as the Prostatef̱tikós ton Ellínon, the Liberator of the Hellenes. The Selloi managed to quickly organize a widespread revolt, under the pretext of liberation from the dahis, Auronopoulos was successful in this, installed his military commanders and local leaders as governors of nahis (administrative units), the dahis who refused to leave were captured and executed after the Selloi liberation of Arromachia. The new revolutionaries achieved several victories, including in the Battle of Skafia in 3172, and the Battles of Kannodia and Arromachia in 3171 At the end of 3172 Arromachia was freed from Parsian rule. In 3173 Askion, Methonea and Monevasia also was freed, Auronopoulos has reformed the Eleftherias Liberation Army as a measure against the Persian rule and liberated almost every Selloi city in the southeast of the peninsula. In 3173, Selim III and his successor Mustafa IV were both deposed and killed by Mahmud II. In midst of this political crisis, the Parsians were willing to offer the Selloi a wide autonomy, however, the discussions led to no agreement between the two, as they couldn't agree on the exact boundaries of Selloi lands, and the Selloi denied the presence of parsians in various positions. Auronopoulos now declared himself hereditary supreme leader of new Ruthenia, although he agreed to act in cooperation with the governing council leaded by Eranakis and Fasoulakis, which was to also be the supreme court. When the Parsians recovered of his crisis In August 3174, an Parsian army marched on Arromachia, prompting a mass exodus of people across the Koronia Valley, Facing disaster, Auronopoulos appealed to the Maurians with no success. At this point, the Selloi rebels were on the defensive, their aim was to hold the territories and not make further gains. Exile, Death and Legacy After some time, Auronopoulos emigrated to Arcadia, where he use the Eleftherias as a Meteriote representative of the act of Enosis, The Selloi remnants tried to call to the leaders of the Eleftherias but Eranakis becomes a Pasha and betrayed all the Eleftherias efforts, when the Enosis were primarily interested in using Arromachia as base of the Selloi operations. Manuel Eranakis was fully uncooperative. On 24 July 3175, days after he secretly crossed into Parsia to try to spearhead a new uprising, Auronopoulos was assassinated in Koronia with his Eleftherias band against the Parsian Army and the men of Eranakis. This happened on the orders of the Parsians, who feared the possibility of a new uprising, while Manuel feared competition by the enormously popular Auronopoulos, his remains were rescued by their faithful and were buried in Volussia The assassination marked the beginning of the union of the Selloi people as "Ruthene" and the final foundation of the Enosis, the legacy of Auronopoulos decided the way of the Selloi and becomes fifty years later in the independence of the Ruthene people. The Ruthenians once liberated create a numerous churchs, statues and orders in honor of Auronopoulos, becoming a national hero and the first revolutionary who dared to fight against the Persians and get enough hits, in Arromachia theres a monument near Volissia, the village where he born, the former parsian capital was renamed Auronopolis in the memory of the Prostatef̱tikós and the Basileus built the monastery of St Sebasteia the saint patron of Michael in the outskirts of the capital, being one of the most visited temples in the north after Hagia Mistea References Category:Ruthenia Category:Ruthenian People